For our games, we aim to share positive aspects of human nature. This is why we spend a lot of time testing and deciding what we should be emphasizing or avoiding in the design, so that the players behave differently and more positively in the community.

Have you played Journey? If so, did you enjoy playing with another player?

My experience on playing Journey with another player (don't read if you haven't played).

Spoiler: (Highlight to read)I've had many encounters with other players, if we managed to stay together all the way to the end, someone always draws a heart in the snow

Info on Journey (for those of you who doesn't know what it is)Journey is a short indie game originally released for PS3 and later for PS4 as well. It's the sort of game that you can finish in one evening.

If you’ve played the game, you know that although it can be played with another player, it isn’t a co-op or a multiplayer game. Playing with someone is optional. But how do you design a game were you don’t need the other player, but you want them? And how do you design a game so as to encourage people to connect on an emotional level?

Typically with co-op or multiplayer games there will be all these different interactions going on. Depending on what kind of game it is, people will start to compete with each other etc. and so the social dynamic changes.

By gradually removing things and changing the way that you can interact with another person and the reason for why you’d want to interact with them (needing them to push that level vs not needing them to proceed in the game), it then becomes more about emotionally connecting to another person.